We’re into the second day of lockdown and our new life for the next four weeks.
We are communicating regularly and at length with our owner and tenant communities and phoning those tenants whom we know do not have email access to pass on those messages. If you are an owner or tenant of ours and don’t seem to be receiving this correspondence, please be in touch with us as soon as possible as this is our primary way of getting important detailed messages out and if we have an email address for you we may not know you are not receiving the messages.
We have already seen incredible compassion this week from owners who are coming forward with offers of reduced rent, deferred rent, whatever they can manage. We have also had a tenant come forward and say her income is unaffected so if the owner of her property offers a discount, please pass it on to someone who needs it more.
Ignore the rhetoric in the media, what’s going on at ground level is really quite humbling.
At Mana Property we deal with owners who are on the same wave length as us when it comes to compassion and empathy. These qualities are why most of them have engaged us. I’m certain that every one of them would assist their tenants if they could but regrettably, not all of them will be able to because of their own circumstances. And that’s ok. Some of our owners have lost their jobs too and needed that money to chip in to the mortgage, and some live off the rent income and rely on it to pay their electricity bills and buy groceries.
We are continuing on with inspections, either by video link or by phone interview. Inspections are a chance to touch base with tenants, see how they are, how they’re finding the property and see if there are any ways we can help. We understand others are deferring inspections and that is a valid option, but we don’t want to give up this opportunity at a time when it is more vital than ever to be communicating with each other.
Our team have called our tenants who live alone or are elderly to check in on them and we will do so at least once a week throughout the lockdown.
We only want the country to be in this position once, and only for 4 weeks, so please join our team in following the restrictions to the absolute letter. No “I’m an exception” mentality, just plain old staying home.
As we have said to our tenants, take care of yourselves, call us to chat if you need anything (or just get bored) and don’t pop your isolation bubble!
The Team at Mana Property Management